February 23, 2009
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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As the old saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was ripped in the press all of last week after the wreck he was involved in upstaged the rained out ending of the race.
Last year at Richmond after being wrecked by Kyle Busch when he was on the verge of breaking a 71 race winless streak, Earnhardt downplayed the incident, insisting that he felt no ill will toward Busch. His legions of loyal fans were outraged by the incident and many of them wished that Earnhardt would drive with the more aggressive style his father used to employ.
Yet, why is it when he was having a good run of bad luck with several miscues on pit road that were clearly his fault and he shows flashes of his father on the race track, the media has suddenly turned against NASCAR’s most popular driver?
Although he was a lap down at the time and not racing for the lead, Earnhardt still believed that he had the car to beat and needed to get back on the lead lap before the rain started. The driver at fault for the wreck is Brain Vickers. It is one thing to block another car. It’s something else entirely to run someone completely off the track, which is what Vickers did with his violent left turn.
“I had a big 'ol run on him, and I went to the inside,” Earnhardt said in a Dave Rodman article for nascar.com. “I didn't try a late move or to make up some surprise or anything -- I just kind of eased on over there and he went to block me and hit me in the fender, which sent me off toward the grass. In trying to recover my car I got back into him trying come back up on the race track. I don't hate it for him, but [I do] for everyone else that wrecked.”
While no one would intentionally cause an incident that would wreck the entire field, what would have happened if a driver had blocked Dale Earnhardt Sr., in such a fashion? Exactly the same result, the offending car spinning up into the wall with cars wrecking behind him.
He certainly can’t be faulted for driving hard and trying to put himself in a position to win the race. Despite being down a lap two different times, he managed to finish on the lead lap and salvaged a 27th place finish out of what was otherwise a horrible day.
Earnhardt apologized on Friday, admitting he was partially at fault for the wreck and stated in a Terry Blount article for espn.com that “he could have used better judgment in coming back up on the race track.”
He called Vickers during the week to talk about the incident and clear the air between the two. This is not the first time there has been trouble between Vickers and Earnhardt. Vickers wrecked Earnhardt at the end of the Talladega race in 2006 en route to his only Cup win.
Yet, why should Earnhardt be expected to apologize? Sometimes his fans feel as if he drives with too much respect on the race track and apparently, he agrees with them.
"I've always been too nice," Earnhardt said in the Blount article. "I'm still a good guy. But that was the Daytona 500 and I felt I had the car to win. I felt if I could get my lap back I could get it done. That was the best car I've had at Daytona in a couple of years. I was racing as hard as I could."
Now that NASCAR’s most popular driver shows a little aggression he is suddenly the bad guy? Maybe that’s what NASCAR needs. Maybe its time for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to paint his car black and go racing, to be the Intimidator.
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